'''WARNING: Only spoilers for Seasons 4 and 5 will be [[PersonAsVerb Walter Whited]] out.'''----* AlternativeCharacterInterpretation: Possibly one of the main purposes of the show.** It's hard to decide if Walt's turning into Heisenberg is retaliation against a world that never cut him a break, a genuine desire to provide for his family, or both? And Walt himself -- was he a nice guy when we first encountered him at the start of the show, or was his persona that of Heisenberg from the very start? Evidence is piling up to suggest the latter. [[spoiler:Especially his explanation of his separation from Gray Matter.]]*** [[TakeAThirdOption Or]] is this all just one extreme case of a man going through a midlife crisis after being faced with his own mortality when he got diagnosed with cancer?*** Did Walt really [[BecomingTheMask become the mask of his Heisenberg persona]], or was the [[BeneathTheMask Heisenberg persona his true self]] from the start? Even the cast members and writers aren't entirely sure.** Skyler: Good woman who's acting poorly due to her husband's actions? Simple human frailty? Or a control freak who ran the family up until Walt broke bad and is now looking for any method to put him under her thumb in some form of twisted love?*** In "Fifty-One", was Skyler's attempted drowning part of her attempt to get the kids out of the house, or was she [[spoiler:actually suicidal]]?** Who is Gus Fring really? And we're not talking about his background in Chile here. Is he a [[BadBoss ruthless drug kingpin]] or a [[BenevolentBoss relatively reasonable boss in the drug trade]]? Mike seems to think the latter, and he angrily tells Walt that everything would have been fine if he just did what he was told. The rival drug dealers may or may not have murdered Tomas Cantillo under orders, but what does it say about Gus that he left hazard pay for his employees in the event that he dies and they are sent to prison? Or even the fact that Gus invites employees over for dinner at his own house? They say that maybe there's a line: [[ReasonableAuthorityFigure perhaps Gus is perfectly fine with those that follow orders and entirely overly cautious or even homicidal towards those that canít be trusted to follow orders]].** Jesse Pinkman's parents. The interpretation really comes down to whether or not you feel it's ever justified to give up on your child. Or whether, given how he was the one taking care of his aunt when she died from cancer, his parents are a large part of what screwed him up to begin with and what led him to turn to drug dealing.** Was Walt right about Gretchen and Elliott all along when they dismiss him on TV? Or are they just doing damage control for their company by distancing themselves from an infamous drug lord? Likewise, is Walt right in saying that [[EvilFormerFriend they betrayed him]], or is he [[NeverMyFault merely blaming them]] for his past errors due to his own pride?** Gale Boetticher: Did he really miss the subtext of Gus asking him to master Walt's cooking methods and was simply too afraid to ask questions about it, or genuinely ignorant of Gus's intent to remove Walt from the picture altogether?** Jane Margolis: Did she genuinely love Jesse or was she more [[GoldDigger interested in his money]]?** What about Lydia? Was she nothing more than a [[DirtyCoward cowardly bitch]] who would stop at nothing to make a buck, or was she just a single mother way in over her head providing for her daughter, unable to accept the true gruesomeness of the business she found herself in? * AndYouThoughtItWouldFail: AMC was very doubtful that ''Breaking Bad'' would amount to anything. Even its creator, Vince Gilligan, didn't know if it would work. One executive described the idea of a high school chemistry teacher turning meth dealer, "the single worst idea for a television show [he'd] heard in [his] whole life". While it got mediocre ratings for most of its run, they eventually exploded at the end, and it remained critically acclaimed for its entire run, climaxing with almost universal adoration with its final episodes.* AnticlimaxBoss: [[spoiler:The Cartel]] for Gus. [[spoiler: Inverted with Hector and Walt, neither one of which were seen as a major (direct) threat, but wound up costing Gus his life.]]* AssPull: Walt leaving his watch on top of a pay phone in the final episode. In an interview on AMC immediately after the episode aired, Vince Gilligan admitted that they panicked a bit upon realizing Walt's constantly wearing the watch ever since Jesse gave it to him would create a continuity error with the flash-forward scene at the start of Season 5, so he just tried to make clear that Walt had ''some'' big reason for not wearing it to his final battle that's left to the viewer's imagination.* AwardSnub: Frequently the cause of this to other shows, especially at the Emmys, where if Creator/BryanCranston was nominated for Best Actor, you can bet he'd win it (in particular, ''Series/FridayNightLights'' fans were very grateful for the two year gap between seasons three and four, which allowed Kyle Chandler to win for that show's last season).* AwesomeEgo: Walt [[spoiler:at least until season 5B]]. * AwesomeMusic: [[AwesomeMusic/BreakingBad Has a sub-page]].* BadassDecay:** Justified with Hank. He goes through a HumiliationConga that ultimately leads to BreakTheHaughty, leaving him rather helpless and emasculated in the end. [[spoiler:He gets better though until the end.]]** [[spoiler:Walt]] goes through one in "Ozymandias", and keeps falling until the end of "Granite State": [[spoiler:His drug empire collapses, the truth comes out, and he flees to New Hampshire where his cancer leaves him so weak that even he realizes that death is imminent.]] Thankfully, [[spoiler:he leaps out of the decay heap when he manages to kill the entire Neo-Nazi gang with an M60 sentry and Lydia with well-placed ricin in her tea.]]*** Also, [[spoiler:threatening Gretchen and Elliot to use his funds to pay for Walt, Jr.'s college fund, thus fulfilling his endgame and getting payback on his former friends all at once]].* BaseBreakingCharacter:** Walt definitely qualifies. On one hand, there are the people who see him as a badass anti-hero who does terrible things for [[JustifiedCriminal the sake of his family]], and believe that he really does care for them. On the other hand are the people who also view his [[MoralEventHorizon increasingly crueler actions]] as a byproduct of his ego swelling to a dangerous degree, and believe that he's become just as bad, if not worse, than Gus and the Cartel. Even [[http://collider.com/bob-odenkirk-jonathan-banks-aaron-paul-breaking-bad-season-5-interview/182937/ some members of the cast have sharply divided opinions on the character.]] It has become so bad that by the end of 5B, the base has nearly shattered completely by people who do and don't want him to succeed.** Skyler, especially in Seasons 4 and 5. She's either a JerkassWoobie who takes a lot of abuse to protect her family, or a hypocritical [[VillainProtagonist Villain Tritagonist]] with no right to take the moral high ground when she argues with Walt.** Though not quite as polarizing as Walt or Skyler, Jesse also qualifies for this status. One half of the fandom believes that he's the biggest [[TheWoobie Woobie]] in the entire show, and that he deserves a happy ending, whilst the other half believe that he's nearly as bad as Walt and believe that he should share whatever fate befalls Walt. The divide has grown even bigger as of Season 5B. Is he [[spoiler:a noble soul trying to find redemption by helping Hank catch Walt, or is he a whiny bitch and a rat who keeps blaming Walt for everything bad that happens to him because he can't take responsibility for his own actions? Or a man pushed to the edge by trauma seeking vengeance? And is said revenge justified or petty?]] You decide!** Hank has also joined the list as of Season 5B, for reasons similar to Jesse. Some believe that [[spoiler:his quest to take down Walt is a justified one. Others believe that his obsessiveness and desire to best Heisenberg has made him barely any better than Walt, and is driven more by ego rather than an actual desire to do good.]] * BetterOnDVD: Has been hailed by many as arguably the ultimate example. Watching the show on DVD or Netflix lets you enjoy the show without the horrible feeling fans got at the end of each episode when they had to wait another week to see what happened next, in addition to spotting all of the {{Foreshadowing}} and symbolism. In fact, Vince Gilligan himself gives Netflix, and binge watching in general, major credit for seeing the show's massive jump in viewers in its final year.* BigLippedAlligatorMoment: Season 2 Episode 7 starts with a [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BUmpTKXpIdM weird narcocorrido song]] about adventures of Heisenberg. It serves to show how far Walt's product and reputation have spread and foreshadow the influence the cartels will have in later seasons, but it's still right out of left field and very jarring to open an episode with a musical number.* BreakoutCharacter: ** '''''[[AmoralAttorney Saul]] [[BunnyEarsLawyer Goodman]]'''''. He proved to be so popular that he received a spinoff called ''Series/BetterCallSaul'' which detailed how he went from being Jimmy [=McGill=] to Saul Goodman. And, unlike most spinoff shows, it's ''actually good''. ** By extension, Mike, as he features in ''Better Call Saul'' as the deuteragonist, and Gus, who gets a subplot revolving around him in Season 3 of the aforementioned show.* BrokenBase: ** Over [[BottleEpisode "Fly"]]. Much of the fandom seems to think that it's either the best or the worst episode of the show. It's either a brilliant character study, or a pointless {{filler}} episode. Most people are at least in agreement that it doesn't really advance the plot of the show very much, unlike [[ContinuityLockout just about every other episode]].** The plane crash at the end of Season 2 is either a ContrivedCoincidence that's a CliffhangerCopout after all the vague {{flash forward}}s and build up or it's a great metaphor for how Walt's actions have consequences he can't imagine. Specifically, viewers are sharply divided over whether it is appropriate to ''blame'' Walter for the plane crash.** While the second half of season 5 is almost universally loved and the first half is still well liked there is a disagreement between those that believe the plot line of the first 8 episodes was rushed and could have filled a full 13 episode season and those who like those episodes specifically ''because'' of the faster pacing.** While it was critically acclaimed by most fans and critics, the ending caused a divide of its own. Some people feel that it was a satisfying finale that wrapped up all the remaining loose ends and gave the audience what it wanted. Others felt that it was too cartoonish, that it didn't stay true to the darker, more tragic themes of the final seasons (especially in how Walt suddenly became TheAtoner for little adequately explained reason), and that it ended things too neatly.* TheChrisCarterEffect: Vince Gilligan admitted that the third season was written from episode to episode instead of being planned out. For some fans, it's noticeable by how the plot moves at a strange pace and how some characters ended up as mere {{Red Herring}}s, but it isn't as jarring as other shows that fell under this effect, and the season still received critical acclaim. This is ironic considering Gilligan was an executive producer and writer for ''Series/TheXFiles'', a series infamous for this trope.%%%%%%%%%% Do not add any more entries to Complete Monster unless it has been discussed in this page: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=6vic3f9h1cy5qivsenw8llok%%%%%%%%* CompleteMonster: [[AxCrazy Leonel and Marco Salamanca]], known as "The Cousins", from season 3, are ruthless enforcers for the Juarez Cartel. We get a hint of the twins' viciousness when they [[OffWithHisHead decapitate]] an informant for the DEA named Tortuga and for a touch of BlackComedy put his head on a tortoise rigged with a bomb to catch the Federales. After arriving in America after the death of their cousin Tuco, the two slaughter every immigrant they arrived with, then kill an old woman to take her house as a base, and the [[CopKiller police officer]] who comes to investigate. The two later stalk and attempt to murder DEA agent Hank Schrader, treating everything with nothing more than [[TheStoic emotionless]], single-minded ruthlessness.* DarknessInducedAudienceApathy: By the start of Season 5, there are hardly any characters left who haven't crossed the MoralEventHorizon or committed/considered reprehensible acts, which causes this to set in as the series proceeds to reach darker levels.* DoNotDoThisCoolThing: [[DownplayedTrope Downplayed]]. The show spends an awful lot of time showing Walt do MadScience in {{Hard Work Montage}}s and lingering on the mountains of cash he earns. However, the appeal is fleeting at best, since drug use and drug users are still made to look pretty horrible, most people in the drug trade seem to die pointless deaths [[DisposingOfABody never to be seen again]], and Walt destroys everything he cares about in the process.* DracoInLeatherPants:** Some fans still considers Walter as a hero who does everything for his family even when his actions say otherwise [[spoiler: and himself confesses in the finale that he has been making drug because he enjoyed it and was good at it]].** Althought Skyler mostly gets the RonTheDeathEater treatment, some fans see her as a saintly woman who suffers from an abusive husband and blatantly ignore her obvious flaws like her hypocrisy and greed.** Jesse also gets a good deal of DracoInLeatherPants from people -- apparently, realizing that you're a bad guy but continuing to cook meth and doing bad things that aren't as bad as the other criminals you work with makes you a good person. Actually discussed in-episode: when Jesse wants out of the operation with his cut of the money, Walt points out that it's still drug money he'd be taking and asks why he would want it if he's [[LampshadeHanging "so pure, with such emotional depth."]]** Season 5B also has people see [[spoiler:Todd in Leather Pants]] despite his LackOfEmpathy while doing murders or break-ins.* EnsembleDarkhorse: ** Hank and Saul for HiddenDepths and comical nature respectively. Saul even became a BreakoutCharacter by getting his own spin-off.** Mike is the biggest example of this, for his gruff-but-likable demeanor and sheer badassitude and rising from a bit part in the second season to become one of the most important characters on the show [[spoiler:at the time of his death]]. This also got him a role as a regular in ''Series/BetterCallSaul''.** Badger and Skinny Pete get quite a lot of love on various sites, no doubt due to their comical nature.** Huell, Saul's ineffectual, pointy-headed bodyguard, especially when he's paired with Kuby.** Marie and Todd in Season 5B.** Gomez can be considered one for some fans.* EscapistCharacter: Deconstructed with Walt -- he initially starts out as this, as the audience cheers while he breaks out of his tedious existence and lives life on his own terms. But this recklessness gets a load of innocent people killed and his family ends up in shambles because of his illegal activities. Things only go FromBadToWorse as the series goes on.* EveryoneIsJesusInPurgatory: Would be an understatement for fans of this show. Literally every aspect has been analysed by the fandom for some sort of meaning, from the RV to everyone's fashion choices to coffee mugs to the fact that Walt wears white briefs. One reddit user decided to take this UpToEleven by trying to find tongue-in-cheek symbolism for every item in the [[http://i.imgur.com/M6nGsJy.jpg restaurant scene]] from "Confessions"* EvilIsCool: Mike, Walt, The Cousins, and Gus.* FandomRivalry: With fans of ''Series/TheSopranos'' and especially ''Series/TheWire'', as all three shows are considered to be candidates for greatest (crime drama) show of all time.* FashionVictimVillain: Saul.* FlameWar: Ask a forum what's the greatest show of all time between ''Breaking Bad'', ''Series/TheSopranos'', and ''Series/TheWire''. Go ahead.* FountainOfMemes: Jesse. Both Walt and Skyler qualify to a lesser extent.* FunnyAneurysmMoment: ** In one episode of season 2, Jesse tries to surprise Jane by cooking breakfast while she sleeps in. She gets up before he finishes, however, which causes Jesse to say "You weren't supposed to get up." Jane jokingly asks "What, ever?" A few episodes later, Jane dies in her sleep.** One of Jesse's insults to Walt is "Heil Hitler, bitch." It comes back to bite him when he [[spoiler:gets enslaved by Neo-Nazis]].** Skyler warning Jesse to stay away from Walt in the second episode was a comedic scene, though rewatching the series, her telling him to stay away or else he'll be "one sorry individual" is a lot less funny considering most of Jesse's pains are a direct result of Walt's actions.** Several events in this show become this after watching ''Series/BetterCallSaul'':*** In one episode, Skyler skeptically looks over Saul's degree from the University of American Samoa, which is PlayedForLaughs, a way of emphasizing what a tacky and fraudulent lawyer Saul is. Knowing the struggle, the heartache, and the eventual betrayal related to that degree from ''Better Call Saul'' will undoubtedly make that scene much less funny on future viewings. *** Similarly, we have Saul's freak-out during Jesse and Walt's plan to scare him in his introductory episode, once you take the ordeal he went through involving the skateboarding twins and Tuco in the ''Better Call Saul'' episode "Mijo" into account. What at first seemed like Saul simply fearing for his life is actually Saul thinking Tuco's men have decided to finally kill him, especially after he says that whatever they think he did, Ignacio (Nacho Varga) was the real one to blame. --->'''Saul:''' Oh, thank God! Oh, Christ! Oh, I thought... (hyperventilating) What can I do for you, gentlemen?** Badger's Franchise/StarTrek script (which ends with Chekov [[spoiler:[[BlackComedy getting brutally killed by accident]]]]) loses all of its humor after [[Film/StarTrek his current actor]], Creator/AntonYelchin's brutal death in 2016, which was ruled as an "accident".* GeniusBonus:** Heisenberg. If you paid attention in chemistry, this would bring to mind the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle. If you studied German history, Walt's similarities to Werner Heisenberg are incredible. Especially in Season 5, now that Walt is working with a group of Nazis.** Episode 14 of Season 5 is titled "Ozymandias", after the Shelley poem. It's very fitting.** The air disaster in the Season 2 finale has some similarities to the 1986 Cerritos disaster, when an Aeromexico jet and a private plane collided over the skies near Los Angeles International Airport. The air traffic controller monitoring the two flights was named ''Walter White''. The sole difference is that 15 people in houses were killed when Aeromexico Flight 498 slammed into a residential neighborhood.* GrowingTheBeard: Many people agree that while it was tightly plotted, compelling and contained an incendiary performance from Bryan Cranston, Season 1 suffered from having its run truncated by the Writers' Strike. Season 2 picked up at exactly the point Season 1 left off and went on to exceed all viewer expectations, not only developing Walt and Jesse as characters, but giving ostensibly ancillary characters (from [[JerkWithAHeartOfGold Hank]], Skyler and even [[EvenBadMenLoveTheirMamas Tuco]]) an unexpected depth. [[InsufferableGenius Walter]] himself, started as a mildly complex character in the first season, but the second season began adding a massive amount of depth and layers that eventually made him one of the most complex characters ever put on television. Add to this the addition of Bob Odenkirk as [[BunnyEarsLawyer Saul Goodman]], Jonathan Banks as [[HitmanWithAHeart Mike Ehrmantraut]] and Giancarlo Esposito as [[MagnificentBastard Gustavo "Gus" Fring]]. The pace of the show markedly picks up from the beginning of season 2, with every episode feeling like an 'end of season cliffhanger'. While season 1 was great, season 2 onwards was as addictive as, well... crystal meth. From there, it never looked back, eventually ending with one of the most critically acclaimed final seasons in TV history.* HarsherInHindsight: ** A fan who got the chance to watch the finale of ''Breaking Bad'' with the cast was later found to have been operating an underground synthetic marijuana distribution [[http://www.watoday.com.au/entertainment/tv-and-radio/breaking-bad-contest-winner-busted-on-drug-lab-charges-20140103-308gt.html scheme]].** All the scenes with Mike and his granddaughter became rather harder to watch after ''Series/BetterCallSaul'' revealed exactly why he's so devoted to her: For one thing, [[spoiler:her mother isn't his daughter, but rather, his daughter-in-law and late son's wife.]]** Also, just try watching any scenes with Saul the same way knowing full well about his efforts to be a legitimate lawyer, and the sabotage from Chuck, Howard and others that led to him becoming the AmoralAttorney we see here.** The second season features Jane Margolis's father, an air traffic controller, suffering from depression, showing up to work obviously unfit, and he causes a mid-air collision with numerous fatalities. In 2015, the clinically depressed pilot of Germanwings Flight 9525 deliberately crashed his plane into the side of a mountain in France, killing 150 people -- although the ''Breaking Bad'' incident was an accident caused by a depressed air traffic controller, whereas the latter was intentionally done by a pilot.** In "Madrigal," Hank offhandedly points out while interrogating Mike that the Philadelphia PD told him that Mike's tenure as a cop with them ended under, ahem, ''dramatic'' circumstances. Mike says "Not particularly," to which Hank agrees as he's more interested in probing Mike for any evidence of off-the-books work he performed for Gus. It's a bit harder to hear that line from Hank when you know that he's talking about the death of Mike's son Matthew.** Jesse's comparisons between Walt and the Nazis (including, but not limited to, his angrily shouting "Well, ''Heil Hitler'', bitch!" in Season 1, Episode 3) become quite frightening on two levels. First, Walt's pseudonym of "Heisenberg" is the same name as Werner Karl Heisenberg, a Nazi scientist; something Hank picks up on. Second, late in the series, [[spoiler:Walt starts to work with ''actual'' neo-Nazis, going so far as to arrange for them to assassinate Jesse.]]** The end of Gus and Hector's rivalry gets an extra sour note with the reveal in ''Better Call Saul'' that [[spoiler:Gus saved Hector's life during the stroke that paralyzed him, simply because he wanted Hector to suffer Gus' own revenge.]]* HeartwarmingInHindsight: ** Mike's protective relationship with Jesse becomes much more moving after learning his backstory in ''Series/BetterCallSaul''. [[spoiler:His son Matty was killed after Mike advised him to compromise his morality, and he seems to view Jesse as a second chance to save a person who can still be saved.]]** ''Better Call Saul'' also reveals that [[spoiler:Mike killing the surviving Salamanca cousin wasn't just a job for Gus, but payback for them threatening to kill his granddaughter.]]* HesJustHiding: Some viewers want to believe that [[spoiler:Lydia and Walt survived "Felina", reasoning that Lydia was given fair warning of her poisoning and Walt was found by the police seconds after collapsing, giving them both time to be treated]]. However, WordOfGod says that both are dead. And the chances of their survival were very low in the first place. In fact, the script makes it clear that Walt died.* SugarWiki/HeReallyCanAct: Bryan Cranston (previously best known for playing BumblingDad [[Series/MalcolmInTheMiddle Hal]]) has proven his ability to effectively act and convey emotion dramatically in this show, winning him four Emmy awards as a result, tying him for the record for that category.** In the first season, Jesse and his actor, Aaron Paul, received a bit of a mixed reception with many feeling that it was going to go the route of the cliche stoner gangster-wannabe. Aaron Paul blew that prediction out of the water in season two, and continued to turn in progressively more impressive and jaw-dropping performances as the show went on, eventually winning three Emmy awards, breaking the category's record (at least among purely dramatic performances). Some even believe that his performance rivals or exceeds Bryan Cranston's.** Likewise, Skyler was seen as little more than the typical nagging wife by at least one review for Season 1. Fast forward a few seasons, and Anna Gunn becomes the only member of the main cast to win an Emmy besides Cranston and Paul (thanks in large part to Season 5A's "Fifty-One"), winning a second for the final eight episodes.* HilariousInHindsight:** On August 16th, 2012, the Tuscaloosa County, Alabama Sheriff's Office announced its new Most Wanted Fugitive as [[http://crime.blogs.tuscaloosanews.com/12950/walter-white-wanted-for-making-methamphetamine/?tc=ar a meth cook named Walter White]]. This sort of crime would ordinarily be local news had it not been for the coincidence of the schmuck's name. Ironically, the Alabama Walter White's blue collar operation was a lot less sophisticated than New Mexico's Walter White.** At one point during the show's first season, Hank and Walt have a discussion about the arbitrary nature of narcotics prohibition. Hank makes a joke on the basis of cannabis being illegal. Except, New Mexico legalized cannabis for medicinal use in 2007, a year before the show first went on the air.*** Except New Mexico can't actually "legalize" marijuana, they can only make it not a crime under state law. As a DEA agent, Hank works for the federal government, and (properly) still must treat it as illegal, since New Mexico doesn't have the right to override the federal regulations about it. This is an important thing to remember in the wake of several states decriminalizing recreational marijuana in 2014.** Fans of ''Series/FridayNightLights'' get to see [[spoiler:Landry killing Epyck.]]** [[spoiler:Jesse drives away at top speed in a car at the end of "Felina." Guess what Aaron Paul's next major role is in? ''Need for Speed.'' May also double as an ActorAllusion, and triples as a pun in that ''Breaking Bad'' is about a different kind of speed.]]** In the 2006 movie ''LittleMissSunshine'', Bryan Cranston and Dean Norris have brief, unrelated appearances where Cranston plays an obnoxious businessman while Norris plays a cop. ** In 1999, Aaron Paul was in a [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kt6JI9gzECo&feature=kp Corn Pops commercial]] where his parents are trying to talk to him about acting responsibly and being a functioning member of society, but he's too distracted by a drug-like obsession with the cereal to listen. It plays oddly like an in-canon prequel to the show. ** After this show, Anna Gunn starred in ''{{Gracepoint}}'', a remake of the British series ''{{Broadchurch}}''. The fun comes from the fact that [[spoiler:in the original series, her character discovers her husband is a murderer, which is ''not'' the case in the remake (though he's still a horrible person)]].** During "Over", Jesse at one point, while discussing superheroes he has drawn, asks Jane if she would ever want superpowers. Come late 2014 and Creator/KrystenRitter had been cast in the Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse, as the title role of [[ComicBook/JessicaJones Jessica Jones]] for their Creator/{{Netflix}} lineup.** In "Fly", Jesse gets annoyed at Walt for calling the titular insect in their lab a "contamination" he tells Walt he thought it was something more serious like an Ebola virus. Walt finds Jesse's example to be absurd and asks "what would a West African virus be doing in [the] lab?" There actually was a minor Ebola outbreak in the United States in 2014; very few people were affected but it got a lot of media coverage and generated a lot of fear and paranoia.** Gus Fring operates his meth network using his fast food chicken restaurant Los Pollos Hermanos as a front. In August 2015, [[http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/two-arrested-running-meth-lab-out-iowa-taco-bell-n404301 two people in Cedar Rapids, Iowa were arrested for operating a meth lab out of a Taco Bell]].** Los Pollos Hermanos smuggles drugs inside marked buckets of fry batter. [[http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/12/12/drugs-hidden-in-nacho-cheese_n_1143879.html?ncid=txtlnkushuff00000001 While it's not fry batter, some smugglers have been caught trying to use nacho cheese to the same effect.]]** Tortuga, played by Danny Trejo, meets his end when he's decapitated with a machete. [[Film/{{Machete}} Come 2010...]]** As said when Walt Jr. reveals that Hank gave him a book about the agents who caught Pablo Escobar, everyone knows about Escobar but not the agents who helped bring him down. Come 2015, ''Series/{{Narcos}}'' would air on Netflix (the same service responsible for greatly raising BB's profile).** The scene in season 1 with Ken Wins, the asshole stock guy who got his car blown up by Walt, gets funnier knowing about the time that Jimmy and Kim Wexler tricked him into paying for an entire bottle of very expensive tequila. * {{HSQ}}: Gets high near the end of every season. Approaches infinite in the final eight episodes of the series, especially "[[DramaBomb Ozymandias]]" and "[[GrandFinale Felina]]".* HoYay: A very strong case could be made for Walt and Jesse. And, even though they didn't get much screen time together, Max and Gus could definitely count as well. Led to many "Is Gus Gay?" questions being asked.[[note]]WordOfGod says it's a valid interpretation of his and Max's relationship.[[/note]]** Victor seems to take Gale's death harder than is normal for simple business associates in a dangerous business.* HypeAversion: Being one of the most critically acclaimed TV shows of all time, this type of reaction was inevitable.* ItWasHisSled: Walter White dying has become one incredibly quickly. Less than a year after the finale, websites, TV shows, the Emmys, all have no qualm revealing this fact without any sort of spoiler warning. ** However, considering the show's basic premise, Walt's death was a massive case of IKnewIt for anyone who watched the first episode. Walt's survival would have taken a literal miracle. * JerkassWoobie:** Both Jesse and Walt qualify. Interestingly, while Walt begins as a regular woobie and Jesse the jerkass variety, they've switched places by season 3. [[spoiler:By "Ozymandias", Walt has become this again after being forced to leave his family and let everyone think he did a lot of awful things of which he's innocent, as part of his plan to get Skyler off the hook.]]** Hank, whose private pain is concealed by a willfully ignorant and obnoxious public personality.** Marie approaches this territory in season 4 when she has to deal with an almost-crippled Hank, who is deeply bitter about his predicament and takes it out on Marie. [[spoiler:By "Ozymandias", Marie has become a full Woobie.]]** Skyler as of Season 5, as Walt's sociopathic tendencies begin to seep into their home life. In Season 3, it's hard not to feel bad for her when Walt Jr. hates her guts for kicking out Walt... and she can't fight back because that would involve explaining Walt's new life in the drug trade. ** Gus, Season 4's BigBad. His plan to set up a business arrangement with the local drug lord backfired terribly, leading to [[spoiler:his best friend and possible lover being shot in the head right in front of him. He was then held down and forced to stare into his eyes as he bled out, all while being reminded that "you did this to him."]] Twenty years down the line, he's far from the most innocent of souls, but it's clear that the pain is still tremendous. * LikeYouWouldReallyDoIt: ** Averted. [[spoiler:Many assumed Hank and Gomez were safe after the cliffhanger in "To'hajille", believing that if they were going to be killed off, it would be at the end of an episode rather than at the beginning. Boy, were they wrong.]]** Played straight in the pilot. Like you're really going to have your protagonist commit SuicideByCop in the first episode of the show.* LoveToHate: ** Gus** The Aryan Brotherhood members Todd, and Jack.** Skyler, to a lesser extent, for those who see her as an Anti-Hero rather than TheScrappy.** Walt to those who don't strap him in leather pants.* MagnificentBastard:** Walt builds up to this over the course of the series, becoming steadily more confident in his ability to control people and using it to climb his way up to the power ladder of the drug world bit by bit, all the while evading capture and taking enemies out of the picture. [[spoiler:He's unquestionably this at the end of Season 4 and into Season 5, executing masterful plans to further his goals, especially in the series finale.]]** Gus is charismatic, powerful, confident, and utterly ruthless. Most of Season 4 is him executing a grand overarching plan using Walt and Jesse, and he pulls it off flawlessly. [[spoiler:Walt is ultimately only able to kill him by means of the one person Gus lets his guard down around: Gus is otherwise untouchable.]]* MemeticMutation: [[Memes/BreakingBad Has its own page, bitch!]]* MisaimedFandom: There's a very vocal part of the fandom that still fails to get the memo about Walt becoming a borderline monster, fawning over everything he does and says. See EvilIsCool way above.** The fact that this was occurring in the first few seasons is frustrating, but ultimately unsurprising at worst, and sometimes understandable. The fact that this has continued into season 5 is insane.** By relation, it's also not surprising that the characters with the biggest Hatedoms are the ones who most vocally oppose Walt.* {{Mondegreen}}: Many viewers misheard Lydia's line "Not if you're Madrigal." from "Gliding Over All" as "Not if you're [[AWizardDidIt magical]]." If only that was the real line...* MoralEventHorizon: '''Heavily''' debated, due to heaping amounts of AlternateCharacterInterpretation over how sympathetic certain characters are and how justifiable or not their actions are.** WordOfGod is that the moment that Walt crossed it is when he refused to let Gretchen and Eliot pay for his treatment and went back to cooking meth instead, letting his pride dictate his judgment rather than take the extremely generous and well-intentioned offer. Among fans and critics, the most common deeds brought up as candidates for the trope are the mentioned money refusal, allowing Jane to die, choosing to continue cooking meth despite achieving his initial monetary goals, arranging and ordering Gale's death, and [[spoiler:poisoning Brock]].** Skyler's shots at the trope include having an affair with Ted or agreeing to help launder Walt's drug money, both of which fans feel [[{{Hypocrite}} ruin any claim she has to a moral high ground]].** Jesse comes close to crossing it when he attempts to peddle meth to his addiction support group, but backs off and later confesses it to them in tears.** Gus crosses it when he [[spoiler:tells Walt he intends to have Hank killed, and if Walt interferes, Gus will kill him and his entire family.]]** Unassuming Todd crosses this pretty hardcore at the end of his second appearance when [[spoiler:he ''kills'' a child witness without batting an eye. He stays past the horizon once he kills Andrea in "Granite State" to punish Jesse.]]** Hector Salamanca crossed this years ago, killing Gus' business partner and sadistically forcing Gus to watch his dead body bleed out as Don Eladio taunted him.* {{Narm}}: ** When Walter yells/raises his voice, it earns some snickers due to the snarl he uses when yelling.** Some of the Spanish segments (with Gus especially) have received some criticism from native speakers for not sounding authentic, rather sounding awkward and clunky to anyone who has an ear for the language. ** Some scenes from earlier seasons have gone down in history as the cringiest of the whole show; the two top contenders are [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n_GiCz7nPsU Skyler singing a Marilyn Monroe-style rendition of "Happy Birthday" to Ted]] and [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vt8B4ZMvJIU Skyler giving Walt a handjob for his birthday]].* NeverLiveItDown:** Contrary to MemeticMutation, Walt Jr. does more in the show than eat breakfast. [[SarcasmMode He demands other characters cook it too, and that's it.]]** There is ''considerably'' more to Jesse's character than him saying "bitch" a lot. He doesn't even say it that often on the show (especially later on), but it has grown into Jesse's most popular characteristic to the public eye.** For fans who dislike Skyler, she fucked Ted.* OneSceneWonder:** Junkyard Joe, the crooked owner of the junkyard where Walt wants to dispose of the RV. When Hank gets mixed up in the action, Joe stalls him long enough with some pretty extensive knowledge of law.** The weapons dealer in "One Minute."** Peter Schuler, Gus' contact in the fast food industry.** Becky, the Whites' neighbor whom Walt uses [[MoralEventHorizon to unknowingly lure out the mooks]] in Season 4's finale.** Trent, the waiter who tries to serve the White and the Schraders [[spoiler:during an extremely heated discussion regarding Walt's crimes.]] ** Robert Forster as the vacuum cleaner repairman [[spoiler:and identity eraser]] in "Granite State".* ReplacementScrappy:** InUniverse: Gale for Jesse, briefly. Ultimately subverted in that Walt really likes Gale and probably relates to him better than Jesse, but decides he has to take Jesse back to keep him under control. As such, to get rid of him, Walter treats him like this.** Todd, for Jesse, mostly for being a dumber, more shallow, somewhat more sociopathic and arrogant version of him. Walt may also feel this way about Todd in-universe, since he seems disappointed to be working with Todd after Jesse quits, even though their quality didn't drop and Todd tried his hardest to help Walt. He ended up getting rescued in Season 5B as detailed below.* RescuedFromTheScrappyHeap: ** Skyler has gradually undergone this over the course of the show, partially due to backlash against the contingent of fans who hated her so ferociously during the early seasons. It's no coincidence that as Walt falls deeper into the Heisenberg persona, Skyler's opposition to his behavior becomes more and more sympathetic. And when push comes to shove [[spoiler:she chooses Walt and protecting her family from the truth, over just handing him over to Hank. Even though the decision means destroying her relationship with her own sister, possibly forever.]]** Hank began as Walt's obnoxious DEA brother-in law, which inevitably grated on people. Starting in season 2, after he shoots Tuco and slowly starts to have a nervous breakdown, he became an EnsembleDarkhorse due to actually displaying some competency and HiddenDepths.** Marie got rescued, arguably, in season 4, when she shows her genuine love for Hank and tries everything to improve his situation and only gets coldness and distance. Then it happened for real in season 5 when [[spoiler:she finds out the whole truth, and slaps Skyler and even tries to take Holly out of the house. And then follows up by telling Walt point-blank that he should just kill himself if he really wants this to end well for everyone.]]** Possibly [[spoiler:Todd]] in Season 5B, when CharacterDevelopment [[spoiler:turned him from just a ReplacementScrappy for Jesse into an incredibly compelling, disturbing individual with a personality beyond "opposite of Jesse"]].** Some of the people who began to dislike Jesse [[spoiler:after he sided with Hank in order to try and bring Walt down]] began to sympathize with him again [[spoiler:once he was turned into a slave for Jack's gang, and was forced to watch Andrea get murdered]].* RewatchBonus: ** Getting greater insight into Walter's motivations can put scenes and conversations from earlier in the show, going all the way back to the pilot episode, into a whole new light. The same thing goes to any other scene, when you know the character's fate.** ''Series/BetterCallSaul'' provides all kinds of new tidbits about Saul, Mike, Tuco, Hector, and more. See all three Hindsight categories above for some of the biggest bonuses there.* RonTheDeathEater: Thanks in part to the DracoInLeatherPants / MisaimedFandom surrounding Walter White, the most "hated" characters tends to be the ones who most vocally oppose Walt's actions.** Skyler was this initially to the majority of fans early on. The bit where [[YourCheatingHeart she cheated on Walt with Ted]] only served to add fuel to the fire. Of course, it didn't help that she was in the rather thankless position of being in opposition to Walt's erratic behavior and suspicious actions. Even though the audience knew she had every right to be wary, given he was off cooking meth, her husband initially had sympathetic motives. However, as Walt's [[MotiveDecay motivation drifted]] from desperately wanting to provide for his family to feeding his own massive ego and greed, she began [[RescuedFromTheScrappyHeap gathering greater sympathy]].** The Schraders didn't fare much better either -- Hank is disliked for his boisterous, politically incorrect behavior while Marie was disliked for being a gossipy know-it-all. Hank is [[RescuedFromTheScrappyHeap rescued]] after being injured and suffering panic attacks in Seasons 2 and 3 while Marie was largely rescued in Seasons 4 and 5 as she struggles to cope with an injured Hank's indifference towards her [[spoiler:and then after she TookALevelInBadass after her sister and brother-in-law are found to be engaging in criminal activities]].** Even Walt Jr. was not immune, with a lot of his detractors claiming him to be an whiny, ungrateful "[[CriticalResearchFailure retard]]" whose only saving grace was that he liked his father more than his mother. [[spoiler:Which resulted in his calling the cops on Walt in "Ozymandias" being seen as his MoralEventHorizon to the hatedom.]]* TheScrappy: Out of all the characters, Skyler has the most criticism directed towards her due to her nosy behavior and often rude behavior. As Walt became more of a monster, however, this turned into a flat out war over whether she had fair ground or not, especially when she had an affair with Ted and became part of Walt's operation. Even more so, some people [[http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/24/opinion/i-have-a-character-issue.html?_r=1 started sending Anna Gunn herself death threats]]. * SeasonalRot: A minor example. Some fans prefer Season 4 over 5 because of its tense pacing and strong continuity (it centers on the development and climax of Gus Fring and The Cartel's story arcs, both which had been focal points over the previous two seasons). This isn't to say they don't feel that Season 5 isn't superb, just that Season 4 is the better of the two.** Note that this only applies to the ''first half'' of Season 5. Season 5B, on the other hand, is generally regarded as Season 4's equal, if not superior, for all the same reasons (pacing, continuity, etc.), and is already being listed as one of the best final seasons ever broadcast.** There were also many fans that thought held Season 2 up as the best run of episodes of the show (at least before Season 5B), given its tight structure (Gilligan noted that it was the last time that the writers mapped out exactly what they wanted to do for a season well in advance), the introduction of fan-favorite characters like Saul, Mike, and Gus, and the great impact it had in [[GrowingTheBeard growing the show's beard]].* ShockingSwerve: TheReveal at the end of season 2 that Jane's father Don is an air traffic controller (something never mentioned prior to the end of the last episode), and his grief over her death leading to him becoming distracted at work and accidentally causing a mid-air collision which kills 167 people. Technically speaking, the plane crash ''was'' foreshadowed via flashforward [[ColdOpen Cold Opens]] in four episodes during the season, but the flashforwards were so vague and uninformative that the twist ending seems to come completely out of nowhere and could not possibly have been foreseen.* SomeAnvilsNeedToBeDropped: '''DrugsAreBad'''. Whether or not you use them or make them, it will ruin lives, including yours.** Walt repeatedly loses his money over and over again, and almost every time he goes back to making meth, he has ''nothing'' to show for it in the end. [[spoiler:Although he may have paid for his family's future, Hank is dead, the world knows who he is, his entire family hates him and is traumatized by what he did (and that's not even getting into how much legal damage he brought upon them), and almost everyone even ''remotely'' involved in the drug trade is either dead or ruined because of his actions.]]* SpellMyNameWithAnS: Skyler is frequently spelled as Skyl'''a'''r.* SpiritualLicensee: Before the FX program, it was as if ''{{Film/Fargo}}'' had its own tv show.** Many have also likened it to a [[Creator/WilliamShakespeare Shakespeare]] {{Tragedy}} set in the modern age.* SpoiledByTheFormat: Devastatingly subverted. [[spoiler:Many fans were sure the shootout wouldn't have been made into a cliffhanger if Hank and Gomez both got killed. But this show does go there.]]* {{Squick}}: ** Near the end of the season four premiere, Walt cleans the barrel containing [[spoiler:Victor's remains, currently melting in acid. Walt stops cleaning for a moment when he notices the murky outline of Victor's head detaching itself from his body, and sinking to the bottom of the barrel.]] Yuck.** The disintegrated corpse falling through the floor in the second episode.** [[spoiler:Gus' burnt face is reminiscent of [[Film/TheDarkKnight Two-Face]] when he dies.]]** The heroin injections in Season 2 by Jesse and Jane. Brrr...* TakeThatAudience:** Walt's TheReasonYouSuckSpeech to Skyler in "Ozymandias", taking every argument her haters have made against her and displaying how horrible they are. It looks like the TakeThat has [[FanDumb gone unnoticed]], however, and the hatred continues.*** To those who ''really'' dislike Skyler (for whatever reason), the scene comes across as more VillainHasAPoint.** [[MisaimedFandom Team Walt's]] criticisms of Jesse's moral sensitivity were echoed by [[ObviouslyEvil Jack and the Neo-Nazis]] in ''Granite State.'' * TakeThatScrappy:** In episode three of season five, when Marie was ''constantly'' talking and nitpicking about the car wash workers, Skyler finally said what most fans wanted to say to Marie way back in season one: to shut up, repeatedly and boisterously. Sure, Skyler snapped because of Walt's actions bearing her down, and anyone could've triggered that reaction, but she couldn't have let out her frustrations on a more fitting character. ** Marie's WhatTheHellHero speech to Skyler in "Buried".** Skyler kicking Lydia out of the car wash.** For those that still hate her, Walt gives one to Skyler [[spoiler:during his subtle TakingTheHeat speech]] in "Ozymandias" where he basically voices all the complaints people have towards her since the beginning of the series, namely her bitchiness and nagging. On the other hand, Walt's speech could be interpreted as a [[SubvertedTrope subversion]], since he intentionally painted himself in a horrible light to deflect any and all blame from Skyler. Some fans even theorized the speech was Vince Gilligan's TakeThat to the fans who endlessly attack Skyler, no matter what she has done throughout the series.** Walt telling Jesse the truth of Jane's death, for fans who consider Jesse a rat.* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodCharacter: Oh, boy. Season 5 had this in spades.** Declan. He is (seemingly) a BenevolentBoss who takes a more relaxed, matter-of-fact approach to the drug business, yet retains a professional demeanor and is quite savvy. His character arc could have proved an interesting Foil to both Gus's (who plays TheStoic and is rather ruthless) and Walt's (who is more emotionally turbulent and arguably ''more'' ruthless). Unfortunately, he doesn't show up until Season 5. [[spoiler:[[WeHardlyKnewYe Then he dies]].]]** Lydia is a surprisingly colorful character, mixing FemmeFatale with Adorkable nervousness and an AmbiguousDisorder. She probably would be more liked had she had more time to develop.** [[ThoseTwoGuys Huell and Kuby]]. Delightfully passive and humorous characters. Every time they open their mouths, [[DeadpanSnarker they make]] [[CrowningMomentOfFunny it count]]. They hardly get any screen time together, unfortunately. Apart, Huell is pretty much TheQuietOne, while Kuby is passed over for drama's sake. Their best lines are as a pair.* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodPlot: Mike has a granddaughter, Kaylee. Mike mentors Jesse. Jesse loves kids, having a strong BigBrotherInstinct. It would have been cool to see the two develop a bond, [[spoiler:especially after Mike's death]].** Gus' mysterious past. First, the DEA is unable to find any information about his past in Chile. Second, in the flashback when the cartel kills his business partner, Don Eladio specifically says that Gus is only alive because "I know who you are." Considering how Gus is in no way a kingpin at this point, this implies ''something'' significant about his past. Creator Vince Gilligan has said that he deliberately left Gus's background mysterious, likening it to the contents of the briefcase in ''Film/PulpFiction''.** Surprisingly, Jesse and Walter Jr. never share a scene together during the series. Given that Walter Jr. is Walter's son and Jesse could be seen as Heisenberg's son, it surely would have been interesting for the two to meet. * TooCoolToLive: ** Tortuga. A decapitated-head-turtle bomb was a bit of a downer note for his subplot. ** [[spoiler: Mike Ehrmantraut, Gus Fring, and Hank Schrader all count.]]* ToughActToFollow: Vince Gilligan, the series' creator, is already firmly convinced that he will never be able to follow it up.** This came up in the show itself. While the last two episodes, "Granite State" and "Felina", are widely considered superb in their own right and an excellent ending to the show, they also had the misfortune of following up "Ozymandias" which has been almost universally praised as both the best episode of the series, and one of the best episodes of television ''ever broadcast''. Some critics and fans feel that the final two episodes suffered a bit, for no other reason than being forced to follow the near perfect "Ozymandias".*** To accommodate for this, some fans like to classify "Ozymandias" as the climax of the show and the final two episodes as its epilogue. * TrappedByMountainLions: [[SubvertedTrope Subverted]] with Ted Beneke's financial troubles. At first, the subplot only seems to exist for the sake of giving Skyler more screen time, but [[spoiler:it ends up tying '''hugely''' into Walt's A-plot near the end of Season 4]].* TrueArtIsAngsty: One of the most critically-acclaimed TV shows of all time and also one of the darkest -- and the darker it got, the more acclaim followed. The first season plays like a BlackComedy and, while considered good, is generally regarded as the weakest season. The harrowing fifth and final season displays Walter White's inevitable fall, shows just how far he's fallen as a human being, and is the most critically acclaimed season of the show. And ''Ozymandias'', the darkest and most emotionally-draining episode in the series, is already being hailed as BB's finest hour, if not one of the best episodes in TV history.* UnfortunateImplications: [[http://www.huffingtonpost.com/alice-wilder/the-forgotten-rape-of-sky_b_4013319.html This article]] argues that Walt's sexual assault of Skyler in the first episode of Season 2 is downplayed considerably by the fanbase and perhaps the show.* {{Wangst}}: ** Skyler at times. ** Granted, it's not like [[TraumaCongaLine he doesn't have good reason]], but Jesse cries ''a lot'' throughout the show. The neo-Nazis even lampshade this while watching his confession tape to Hank at the end of season 5. See [[http://i.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/photoshop/7/6/2/296762_v1.jpg this picture]] for more information.** Amusingly enough, Skyler seems to accuse Marie of engaging in this early on in Season 2 (see: her rant to Hank).* WhatAnIdiot:** Ted has the attitude of, "I just received a mysterious inheritance from Saul equivalent to the amount of back taxes I owe. What should I do with it? I know! Buy an expensive car and 'hold out for a better deal.'"*** Ted takes it another step further. "So some tough guys try to force me to sign the check to pay off my debt. Fuck that, I'm going to make a break for it and cripple myself."** Jesse in the second episode of season 2. Their plan to poison Tuco would have worked a whole lot better if he didn't egg him on and make it extremely obvious there was something radically different with that little bit of meth. He goads Tuco to try the Ricin-laced meth, saying the secret ingredient is chili powder. Tuco responds with "I hate chili powder." Walt gives Jesse a look that all but says this. (In Jesse's defense, Tuco noticed the meth smelled bad ("like head cheese") and asked what was up. Jesse just kept going about two sentences longer than he should have.)** Jesse falls under this again in ''Rabid Dog'': [[spoiler:he abandons Hank's plan to catch Walt in favor of his own, which isn't a bad plan per se. The problem is that he goes out of his way to rattle Walt's chain, prompting his former partner to put a hit out on Pinkman, thereby getting Jack's gang involved in the process.]] ** Gale. [[spoiler:What kind of moron leaves his notes for cooking meth lying around in his apartment? Unless he really doesn't get that many visitors.]]** The drug dealer Walt meets at a home improvement store, who decides to buy all of the ingredients for meth in one store. The fact that he looks like a drug addict doesn't help. Walter actually goes out of his way to point out his mistake, as well as telling him that he got the wrong matchbooks.** Walt leaves [[spoiler:a Walt Whitman book with a note from Gale just lying out in his bathroom]].** Badger. He correctly realizes that he's being set up, but the undercover cop still gets him to fall for the old "cops can't deny that that they are cops if asked directly" urban legend.** Walt in early Season 4: [[spoiler:convincing Hank that Gale Boetticher wasn't Heisenberg]] may have been the dumbest thing he's done all series. Justified in that Walt's {{pride}} won't let anyone else get credit for what he sees as his genius.** Mike (by his standards, at least) in early Season 5: [[spoiler:all right, tying up someone to a radiator by one hand with temporary handcuffs is perfectly reasonable. Except when you do it to someone you just called out on being a loose cannon, and who you know is a genius at MacGyvering escapes, and leave them like that for an hour or so. The only mitigating factor is that he might not have had a second cuff to use, but even then, clearing the immediate area of objects was feasible.]]** Skyler could be argued as having been called out in-verse in "Ozymandias". If she hadn't let her pride get in the way, if she had confessed to Hank when he first learned the truth about Heisenberg, the entire train of events leading to [[spoiler:Hank's death, losing her daughter, and having her own husband show the depths of his pettiness and anger before disappearing]] would not have happened.** Hank [[spoiler:finally has Walt right where he wants him: blinded by rage, irrational, and leading Hank right toward a mountain of irrefutable evidence of Walt's wrongdoing. Does Hank immediately call for backup and bring the full force of the DEA down on Walt, complete with choppers and squadrons of agents in full SWAT gear? No. Does he at least phone his findings in to the DEA office so that if the worst should happen, his investigation doesn't die with him? No. He shows up with Gomez and a couple of guns and tells no one where they're going or why. Enter a bunch of heavily-armed neo-Nazis...]]** When Hank first suspects Walt, he puts a tracking device on Walt's car. It just happens to be the exact same kind of tracking device that Hank had Walt put on Gus' car, ensuring that Walt knows exactly where to find it. This is even worse because Hank had very recently chewed out another agent over a tracking device that wasn't hidden well enough.** Jack Welker has [[spoiler:killed Hank and Gomez, captured Jesse, and stolen every barrel but one of Walt's millions of dollars]]. Having [[spoiler:stolen his money and killed his brother-in-law]], does Jack now kill Walt, a man he knows must despise him? Nope! He lets Walt go, and we all know [[KarmicDeath how that turns out]]. A strange example since Jack clearly has no loyalties to anyone but himself, so it's all the stranger when he lets a witness with a grudge leave alive. Hand waved in that Jack says that Todd respects Walt and would be angry with Jack if he were killed, but still...*** They could have also kept him alive because they don't know how much the DEA knows. If Jack killed Walt, and the DEA found Walt's body (assuming that he didn't throw Walt into the same hole as [[spoiler:Hank and Gomez]]), the police would know that there was a new player in town and start searching for Jack's crew. By leaving Walt alive and giving him enough money to disappear, they ensure that the heat stays on Heisenberg and off themselves. * WhatDoYouMeanItsNotPolitical: While WordOfGod has stated that ''Breaking Bad'' is a story of how "Mr. Chips became Scarface," the original driving force behind Walt's meth manufacturing, to help pay for his medical bills, has prompted pro-single payer health care advocates in the US to use the show to [[http://www.anorak.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/breaking-bad-in-the-UK.jpg highlight the issue of health care costs in the United States,]] as well as the War on Drugs. Even the creator has [[http://www.rollingstone.com/movies/news/bryan-cranston-on-the-joy-of-cooking-meth-obamacare-and-malcolm-in-the-middle-20110610 claimed]] that the show could not be set anywhere else but the United States[[note]]At least until the Mexican remake "Metastasis" was set in Colombia[[/note]].* WillingSuspensionOfDisbelief: In the grand finale, [[spoiler:taking out a room full of people with a homemade sentry gun]] isn't the likeliest outcome, but who cares when the alternative is [[spoiler:neo-Nazis not getting their comeuppance]]?* TheWoobie: ** Jesse. Apparently, Walt thinks of Jesse as being a Woobie. According to Bryan Cranston on Inside Episode 12, in Walt's mind if something were to happen to Jesse, it would be like stabbing a puppy with a pitch fork. [[http://hckleinman.tumblr.com/post/28607667713/jesse-pinkman-and-male-self-hatred Rather extensive thoughts on Jesse's woobiehood, for those with time and interest.]]** Gale, poor Gale.** Walt himself starts as this, then becomes progressively less sympathetic as the show goes on. [[spoiler:Fortunately, he becomes a WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds at the end.]]** The little boy in "Peekaboo".** Don Margolis. His wife is gone; his daughter Jane [[OffTheWagon relapses back on drugs]] despite his best efforts to help her stay clean after over a year, and then she winds up dead from an overdose the morning before she would have gone to rehab. After the Wayfarer 515 disaster, he's vilified across town to the point that [[DrivenToSuicide he tries to kill himself.]]** Walt Jr. The kid really loved his dad and once he finds out he was Heisenberg, not only is he crushed and angered, but within less than a day he intercedes into a knife fight between his parents and calls the cops on Walt, forcing him to abandon his family forever.** Marie Schrader becomes this in "Ozymandias": She had just heard that Hank had taken Walt into custody, giving her her first real HopeSpot in ages, only to learn shortly afterwards that Walt has escaped and Hank has been killed, possibly by Walt under her assumptions.** Skyler also becomes this in "Ozymandias" with the abduction of Holly.** Andrea. When we first meet her, Jesse is trying to get her back on meth during their Narcotics Anonymous support meeting. Fortunately, Jesse has a soft spot for kids and immediately backs off, making it clear that she's a young single mom desperately trying to get her life together and raise her son properly. Then she's shot dead by Todd for something she had nothing to do with. ** Brock. He was poisoned by Walt as part of his plan to get Jesse on his side and not Gus', and then his mother was shot dead right outside his house. Despite Andrea being a caring mother, the odds were already stacked against him. With the implications coming from the FridgeHorror of his situation, his odds of being murdered or going to prison are far greater than graduating high school.* XPacHeat: As mentioned above, Anna Gunn has received this big time from the more zealous Skyler haters as a result of the extreme amounts of Skyler hate.* YokoOhNo: In-Universe. Saul accuses Skyler of this when she decides to become more involved with Walt's meth dealing business and, specifically, suggest he invests in the car wash he used to work for as a way to launder money rather than invest in Saul's laser tag venue.----